Silva's Survival
by Lynx-Angel
Summary: The raccoon Silva lives a life full of loneliness and bad luck.  But that all changes when Silva accidentally falls into the Lost World under the ice and meets Buck the weasel.    If you like, please leave a review :D
1. An Unexpected Arrival

The powerful wind blew the snow against me as I made my way through the frozen field. It was around nighttime and I hadn't found any shelter. I knew that I would probably die if I didn't anytime soon.

Now, you're probably wondering why I'm outside at nighttime during the ice age. Wondering why I'm not in a cave or a hollow tree with my family, instead of being out in the cold, all alone.

Well, my name is Silva and this is just my life, I guess. Being without shelter isn't anything new to me. Living alone and being a raccoon isn't the greatest life you could have.

First thing is that being alone means that you have to take care of yourself and find food yourself. It also means that you have to be on the lookout of predators all the time, since there's no one else to do so.

Second thing is that raccoons aren't really all that welcome because they have a reputation for being thieves and treacherous. So asking someone for shelter would just be a waste of time.

Okay, the first of those two things is actually true. When I can't find any food and if I grow desperate enough, I steal. Well, not on a daily basis, but, as mentioned, only when I grew desperate.

"Why didn't I just sleep in that old tree?" I muttered to myself as I moved forwards through the deep snow. "Well, sure it was inhabited, but at that old owl could have shared."

The snow almost reached me to the chest. If I had been a hairless raccoon I would have been long gone, but luckily I wasn't.

Finally I saw something through the blizzard – a cave.

"Awesome," I muttered. "Shelter…"

And what if this is inhabited too? a voice said in the back of my head.

"They can share," I muttered through the blizzard.

What if it is by a predator?

"Who cares? I'll take the chance." Yes, sometimes I argue with my brain as a result of being too alone.

I finally made it to the cave. If I was lucky it would be a stone cave, instead of an ice cave.

Of course when I got inside it, I saw that it was an ice cave. But to my luck, it wasn't inhabited by anyone.

The floor, the walls and the ceilings were made smooth, bright blue ice in which I could see my own reflection. Due to being an ice cave it wasn't really all that cold. Well, that means that it was warmer than outside.

The cave was big and didn't seem to be inhabited, lucky for me. The cave seemed to be very big, but I was too tired to check it out. I laid me down on the cave floor, but soon realized that the ice was impossible to sleep or even feel comfortable on.

I sighed deeply at my bad luck and turned to my right side… So typical! I turned again and saw something I hadn't noticed before: A crack in the ice, actually a rather big one.

The crack was very close to my face. In fact, it seemed to start from under my head. And what was that weird sound…?

Once I finally figured out, it was too late. The ice under me cracked and just then did I realize how thin the ice had been; two centimeters or so.

I expected to fall into some water or something, but I wasn't wet at all. Actually, all I felt were warm gusts of air blowing against my entire body. I realized that I was falling through the air and that there was green, lush forest far under me. The air that blew against me made it hard to breathe, so I couldn't scream – even if I wanted to.

I remember stories about that you could go to the other side of the world from when I was a cub, but this was crazy!

And if I were, then why was I falling down? If I really was on the other side of the planet, I probably would have been coming from the underground,

I knew that the impact with the ground would kill me for sure, so there wasn't much hope for me.

Why didn't I just stay at home? I thought to myself as I kept on falling.

You don't even have a home, the voice in my head spoke. And what did I tell you!?

First up, it was a rhetoric question! my thoughts growled. And…!

My little mental argument was interrupted when I suddenly hit a treetop.

"Urgh! Argh! Ouch!" I fell down through the leaves and branches. I kept my eyes shot, since I didn't want to end up blind.

Finally I hit the ground hard, not hard enough to kill me, but it was enough to knock the air out of me.

After some time I regained my breath and got to my feet.

"My life sucks," I muttered as I started to remove twigs and leaves from my fur. I then took a look around. I had no idea about where I was.

I was in some kind of forest, but I didn't know any of the plants and trees that grew here. I looked upwards. The sky had no stars and I couldn't see the moon.

What was this place? And more importantly where? And how would I get back?

I had to find a way, but it was late and I was tired. I had to find another place to sleep. I could always think about this stuff later.

Since I was unfamiliar with this place I had to be extra careful. I didn't know what predators lived here, so one wrong move could end it.

Ah, finally: A hollow tree! After very little effort of climbing the tree I looked into the hole, while standing on a branch right under it.

There were all sorts of items inside the tree: a square shaped stone in front of the hole, a bunch of flowers and an acorn. Then I saw who lived there: a little squirrel.

I was pretty sure that I wouldn't be welcome, so I decided to just sleep on the branch – besides; the hole was too small for me to get inside. I picked a big leaf from the branch and used it to cover myself as I leaned against the tree.

I sighed. It felt as if I was in another world when I couldn't see the moon and the stars, like I was so used to. I felt so separated from the life I knew, which I actually kind of was.

If I was lucky, then tomorrow I'd wake up and find out that it was all a dream. Well, if you haven't figured out yet, then my luck isn't even good enough to find an available place for the night!

* * *

><p>The next morning I was woken by a long series of squeaky sounds. I opened my eyes with a yawn and discovered the source of the noise: On my chest stood a little squirrel. She wasn't really all that big and her fur was different shades of red and also a little bit of brown. The thing that I noticed right away was that she didn't look happy.<p>

In fact, she looked rather angry for some reason. Maybe it was the fact that I had slept in her tree without any permission. It kind of annoyed me, but at the same time I also knew why that was the reason why she had a freak out.

I didn't quite understand her, but I was pretty sure it was something like "Get off my tree, you stupid raccoon."

"Relax, just let me…" I started and stretched my arms. This just seemed to make her even angrier.

"Okay, okay. I'm leaving now," I said in a very annoyed tone. Obviously this wasn't a very hospitable neighborhood, if you'd like to call it so.

The little squirrel seemed satisfied with my answer and I left. I jumped down on the ground and suspended the terrain.

The forest was lid up by strong sunlight, which came down from the sky. Now, this seemed a little illogic to me. Last night I had figured that this cave was somehow in a cave deep underground. Like that wasn't weird enough, lots of weird and disturbing sounds came out from the thicket of the forest.

I had absolutely nowhere to go, but I guessed that I had to head out either way. I took my first few steps through the thicket. The vegetation made it really hard to move forwards, but this far it was going good; I mean, I hadn't run into any predators.

After some time I finally got out of the thicket and into some kind of valley. The valley was bathed in strong sunlight and as I looked up I saw that it shone through some kind of thick barrier, which I assumed was ice. Somehow the sunrays seemed to get stronger when they shone through the ice – why else would it be this hot, and how would the plants be able to grow this big?

There were a lot of trees and bushes in this big valley, but then I noticed one of the inhabitants of the valley.

My heart skipped a beat when I saw the big, bluish, scaly body, the bulky beak and the big thumb-claws. It was a dinosaur.

Weren't dinosaurs supposed to be extinct? I wondered in my head. This time – luckily – my head didn't answer me, since that would be a little inappropriate.

Once when I found shelter in a mountain cave I had seen some kind of print on the wall – a fossil. The fossil had been of some kind of large animal. This dinosaur seemed to be very similar to that fossil.

Soon a lot of other dinosaurs entered the valley. They had different sizes and looks. Some of them were huge and it looked like their tails and necks were gigantic snakes; some of them had a huge sphere-like head; some had big plates on their backs.

I'm a raccoon, so I was already a pretty small animal, but now I felt like an insect – no offense to insects.

Soon the dinosaur I had seen first noticed me. He looked way down at me from way up there. He seemed to be just as hospitable as the little squirrel from before.

He growled at me and barred his teeth. I felt a little more relieved when I saw how flat his teeth were since it meant that he was a herbivore, which meant that he wouldn't see me as a potential meal.

"Uh… hi…?" I tried, but whatever I tried to do, it didn't work. He growled at me again and I started to back a little away.

Suddenly a loud roar filled the air of the valley. Then the sound of heavy footsteps and the sound of more roars filled the air, but those were roars of horror. I turned around and gasped at what I saw.


	2. What The Buck?

When I saw what I saw, I barely believed my own eyes. An enormous, white dinosaur raged throughout the valley!

All the dinosaurs that had just arrived all fled, but I was too terrified to even move; this was for sure the biggest predator I had ever seen! It was almost the size of the gigantic dinosaurs that had those long necks, which I'm sure, gives a good picture of how humongous it was.

When the white dinosaur closed in I regained my senses and made a run for it. I could almost feel the intensity and the fear in air, as if it was some kind of smell – a very bad one that I wanted to get away from.

As I ran, I had to avoid becoming a raccoon-pancake, because all the dinosaurs were totally freaked out and ran in all directions to get away from the big, white beast, which was terrorizing the valley.

The big, white dinosaur charged towards me, even though I knew that it wasn't after me, since the other dinosaurs would make a better meal (If don't know if raccoon pate tastes good…). But this didn't mean that I wasn't busy getting away.

I suddenly a roar of pain and horror, which sent chills down my spine, which almost felt as cold as the icy world I came from. I turned my head and saw that the white carnivorous dinosaur had slayed a dinosaur. It was one of those big, blue ones with the big thumb claws.

I turned my head again, since I don't really like core and killing and blood and such. Well, to a certain basis, raccoons are carnivores, but it has never gotten too bloody when I 'found' food.

I felt sorry for the dinosaur, though. But I knew that there was nothing that I could possibly do, so I ran the last few meters to get to the forest's thicket.

After some time I stopped by an old and hollow log somewhere deep inside the forest. I was exhausted, not only from all the running, but also from the shock and surprise when the white dinosaur attacked.

I eventually regained my breath and my senses and looked around. I had idea about how long I had been running or where I was.

This was just great: I had panicked so that I had gone lost in a forest in a world I had hardly been in for a day.

"Great. Now what do I do?" I asked myself. I was lost for words and options, since there was thicket everywhere I looked.

_Well, I could try and go back,_ I thought. _But what direction did I just come from?_

As you may have figured out, I'm not the best navigator you'll find.

I knew that I was close to panicking, but I tried my best to keep my cool as I tried to come up with a good option.

_Well, you could just stay here and wait for the white dinosaur to come and eat you._ Just as I thought it wouldn't appear, a familiar voice spoke to me in my head. Like I didn't have enough problems right now!

Ignoring my inner voice I started walking in a random direction, hoping that I would find a way, even though I wasn't in an environment I knew.

Suddenly a rustling sound came from a near bush. Before I could react, I was jumped by a creature, which was a little bigger than me.

With a surprised yelp I fell into a bush with the creature on top of me. I wanted to scream for help, but a furry hand hindered me from saying anything. The creature shushed me as it kept holding me in a firm grip.

Then I heard heavy and stomping footsteps outside the bush. The footsteps were so powerful that the ground shook each time one of the heavy feet hit the ground. I was sure that it was the same big, white dinosaur from before!

Suddenly I could hear the big dinosaur's sniffing very close to the bush. I started squirming in panic, but, whoever held me just tightened his or her grip.

Then I he leaned in and whispered. "Run when I say 'now'."

It made me calm a little down, but my heart was still racing and so did my breathing.

"Now!" The sudden shout made the dinosaur roar in a deafening volume. The person who had taken me into the bush was long gone, but I heard him yell: "Come on, this way!"

I started running towards his voice and got out of the bush, just as a big three-toed foot stomped down on it and mashed it.

As I ran I turned my head and saw the dinosaur. Now it was _much_ closer than before, and I've got to say that it was _huge_! Actually, I can't find the right word to describe its size, but it was… big! I felt a mixture of respect, but also deep fear for it.

"No time to look, just run!" The other creature's voice made me snap out back to reality and made me remember just how dangerous the dinosaur was.

I returned my focus on running and raced through the forest. It's not an overstatement; I've just always been a fast runner, especially when I had to flee from a predator.

I could hear the other mammal in front of me as he guided me through the forest. I couldn't say that I was really complaining, but it was a very tricky way to get through.

I had to jump and or climb over several logs and rock on my way. I even had to get through vines and I had to push my way through big leaves. All the while I could hear the white dinosaur close in.

Finally, after jumping over a little creek, I saw sunlight up ahead. It gave me new hope and assured me that there couldn't be far now.

But just as I came out from the forest all my hopes shattered as I suddenly fell.

This time I was sure that I was going to die. I was also sure that the other mammal had done this on purpose!

So as I fell and fell I screamed my lungs out and my mind cursed the mammal, the dinosaur and my bad luck.

It made me sad on the inside that I would die just now. I mean, I hadn't seen much of the world and now I had finally come to a new and unknown place – a place that seemed to be big and have a lot to explore. But now that could never happen.

Then it happened – or so I thought. I hit something, or rather – something hit me; in the back to be more exact.

I knew that it couldn't be the ground, since I knew I wasn't falling with my back down. Then I noticed that the wind blew through my fur differently; before it blew against me from below, but now it blew against my front. Then I noticed the furry arm that held me.

"Whoops, almost missed you there," the same voice from before spoke. I looked up and finally saw how he looked.

He was a weasel with brown fur, which had the same colors as the leaves that you would usually find under the snow. The fur from his muzzle and down was a more sand-like brown. He also had very dark brown spots all over his fur.

His face was the most interesting part of him. His ears were small and round and his bottom jaw seemed to somehow be more 'marked' and also a little bigger than the upper jaw.

He had a clear navy blue eye. Yes, I only said one. His right eye was covered by a leaf, which I guessed worked as an eye patch.

The reason why we didn't fall into the valley far below, was because he held onto a long vine with his other hand.

"Eh… Yeah," I finally said, a little unsure of what to answer, since I was glad he did catch me. "Thanks."

* * *

><p>"My name's Buck – short for Buckminster," the weasel introduced himself. We stood somewhere in the forest. There was a river running past us and somewhere I could hear the gushing sound of a waterfall. This part of the forest also seemed to be uninhabited by dinosaur, which I liked, but somehow I still felt as if someone was watching us… But maybe that was just me.<p>

"I'm Silva," I informed him. "Short for… Well, just Silva."

"Don't you have a little bright fur? I mean, compared to other raccoons," Buck asked me and now I noticed that he spoke with some kind of accent, which made his voice sound a little funny in my ears. I hadn't heard that kind of accent before, but I kind of liked the way it sounded. Buck then continued: "It looks rather…"

"… silvery," I finished the sentence. "That's why I have my name. Silva, as in silver…"

Buck didn't really seem to get it. It didn't really matter if he did, but it was more important that he remembered my name.

Okay, I guess I'll have to explain that fur color thing for you. You see, the only thing I remember about my parents is that one of them was an albino. Albino means that their fur was completely white and their eyes were red because their body lacked pigment and color.

I never had any interaction or anything to do with my parents or what other family members I've probably had. To cut a long story short, I was abandoned. Yes, as a little cub who didn't know how to survive and find food. I woke up one morning and they were all gone.

Luckily I'm a fast learner and was able to survive until now. But I wasn't sure how much longer I'd survive down here.

"Oh, well," Buck continued after a little while. "How did you get down here? I sealed the last entrance."

"Actually I _fell_ down here through a crack in the ice," I explained. I then pointed upwards at the ice that sealed us from the upper world. "From waaaaay up there."

"Really?" Buck asked, sounding a surprised and maybe a little impressed. Then he suddenly – to my confusion – asked: "How was it?"

I raised an eyebrow. Why would he ask such a question? Falling from such a height with no warning – how would he feel about that? I replied: "Eh… It was… Kind of terrifying…"

"Terrifying?" Buck asked as if I said something completely nuts. "Don't you like free falls?"

"No. And thanks for making me fall out from a cliff," I said sarcastically. That one thing almost scared the heck out of me. It even made me have all kinds of emotional thoughts and whatever goes through your mind when you know you're about to die.

"You're welcome," Buck said with a voice that made it clear that he didn't hear the sarcasm. Or maybe he didn't care and thought that it was funny.

"But at least you've survive… _Him_," Buck said. The way he said the word 'him' was actually a little creepy and when he did, he did some weird hand motions as well as some weird facial expression, which just added to the creepiness.

"Eh… Him?" I asked, confused. I started to think that Buck had a screw loose, if you know what I mean. "You mean the dinosaur?"

"Aye," Buck answered. I had no idea what he meant, since it sounded like 'eye' to me.

I was sure that there was a meaning with it, but Buck had showed that he maybe was a little 'nuts', but I had to ask: "Eye?"

Buck slapped his forehead and sighed deeply, as if I wasn't the first to misunderstand this. A few seconds went before Buck finally said: "Yes, aye, aye."

"Oh… Okay…"

"What is it called?" I asked after a few seconds.

Suddenly felt as if I was being watched again, but I was sure that we were far away from… 'Him'…

Suddenly Buck bowed forwards and in a deep, creepy voice he said: "Ruuudy…!"

After that the forest was completely silent, even the wind stopped blowing. The only sound I could hear came from the waterfall far away, but it felt as if the whole forest held its breath because of that name.

What can I say about the name Rudy? Well, it wasn't as intimidating as I had expected (In fact far from what I expected). Actually, the name seemed too dull for the dinosaur, since it was as ferocious as it was.

"Rudy? Like, seriously?" I asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Aye," Buck answered in all seriousness. He then said: "I've fought him quite a few times. Once I even died, but I survived."

_Once I even died, but I survived?_ That didn't make any sense at all! As far as I knew, you couldn't die and survive at one time. Now I was sure that Buck was crazy.

"Right… You died, but you survived," I said, trying to pretend like it made sense. "You know what? I think I'll just find the exit myself…"

I know it is a little rude to turn away from a person, just because you think that they're a little weird, so don't judge me. The problem was that his craziness could kill one of both of us. He had already made me fall off a cliff and he barely caught me. Who knew what could come next?

I turned around and started walking towards the forest, not really caring about anything or the repercussions of going in there alone.

"Abandon all hope, he who enters there," Buck warned me in a dramatic voice. I didn't really care about his warnings at this point, so I carelessly wandered into the forest on my own.


	3. A Hint of Rugby and Taking a Decision

"Maybe I shouldn't have left like that," I muttered to myself. I had been wandering around the forest for a few minutes now and I still hadn't gotten out of it yet. Getting out of a forest was seemingly harder than you'd think – especially when it's a forest this big!

Maybe it was better to let Buck lead me out, since he was probably more familiar with these parts than I was. But then again, I would have to deal with his craziness.

After thinking about it, I concluded that it was because of loneliness that he had become so crazy. I mean, I had also lived my whole life alone and I was having conversations with my head! Like, how normal is that?

Nah, I'd find home myself. That weasel could take care of himself and so could I! All I needed to do was finding a way to climb up to the ice – and get out of this forest of course.

Soon I came to a little forest trail. It wasn't that wide, but surrounded by lots of colorful plants and flowers. Some of the plants looked like big round pods and they had purple and pinkish flowers. It was actually really beautiful, but I didn't keep my guards down. Who knew what kinds of dangers existed here?

Carefully I walked through the trail, while I looked out for predators. The plants and flowers here made very thick fauna 'walls' around me, so a predator could easily ambush me without me knowing. So walking here was a little risky.

Do you ever get that weird feeling that someone's watching you when you're all alone? I soon got that feeling. It actually felt like many eyes were watching me from behind. I quickly turned, but no one was there; all there was were plants.

_Weird,_ I thought. _I was sure someone was watching me…_

When I continued, I started to look over my shoulder, like every fifth second, just to make sure I wasn't followed by anyone. You can never be too careful!

Soon I came to a little clearing. The forest floor wasn't just ground anymore, but some of it was covered in green moss. It reminded me of grass, which I had seen back on the surface when I had dug in the snow. I hadn't done it too many times, but only when I needed to find branches for a fire.

To be honest, raccoons are some of the smartest animals around. I mean, it's not like… let's say a sloth, would know how to make a fire, right? At least I've never seen anyone else – other than humans – do it, so I guess raccoons are the only ones who are intelligent enough to do so.

Anyways, I walked carefully through the clearing and as I looked up I saw the huge branches of some trees high above me. They seemed thick enough to carry a mammoth or two!

Suddenly I saw a little round and red object hanging from a vine – a fruit! I suddenly remembered how hungry I was and went to grab it, but I was interrupted by a familiar voice.

"That wouldn't be a smart move, kid." I turned my head and saw Buck stand on a branch of a tree. He stood leaned against the thick log with his arms crossed, and now I realized how short his arms and legs were compared to his long body. And what was that he was holding with his left foot? Was that a… tooth?

"What, eating?" I asked in a skeptic tone with a raised eyebrow. Not like he wasn't weird enough, but why would eating a fruit be a bad thing? Unless it was toxic, of course, then I'd be able to see the problem.

"I mean, is it toxic, or something?" I asked in a more nervous tone. Maybe this was a bad idea.

"Tourists, you've got to love 'em," Buck muttered with a chuckle. He then continued: "No, the _fruit_ isn't dangerous – it's actually quite delicious."

"What's the problem then?" I asked. This seemed to get more meaningless as time went on – and Buck had already made it so meaningless that my brain couldn't understand it. "It's just a fruit, right?"

At this, Buck jumped off the tree and landed a few meters from me. This time I could see that it _was_ some kind of tooth from a big animal when Buck held it in his hand. It did look sharper, sleeker and smoother than natural, so I guess that Buck had sharpened it to use it as a weapon. I couldn't help but wonder what kind of animal it could come from, since it was more than half the size of my body – which is pretty big.

He had attached a handle to it, so that it looked like one of those objects called knives – the ones humans use to slay animals with.

I raised an eyebrow when Buck poked the fruit with the tip of his knife. After that, something green came towards us with high speed, but Buck pushed me onto the forest floor before it hit me.

I landed on my back and soon I heard weird swirling-like sounds. When I looked up I saw Buck jumping around, looking crazier than ever. But then I noticed the reason why he jumped around; long, green and whip-like vines shot against him, trying to get him.

It totally took me by surprise and the fact that a _plant_ could be _this_ dangerous scared me a little.

Buck jumped into the air and slashed the vines that tried to snatch him. As he did so, he made a lot of front flips and spinning in mid air, which looked very graceful.

Then a vine suddenly grabbed Buck by his right leg. It then dragged him towards where the fruit had been moments ago. Suddenly the mossy ground started to rise – like literally! I then realized that it was some kind of plant. The leaves had simply been pressed against the ground to make it blend in with its surroundings! I was still surprised, but Buck actually seemed to know exactly what he was doing – whatever that was.

Buck was continuously dragged towards the plant and I realized I had to do something. But what would you do against a big, carnivorous plant? Yeah, there's not really much to do when the leaves started to close around Buck.

I felt bad for not helping him at all and I kind of felt like it was my fault that he died.

Suddenly I heard a slicing sound from the plant, which made my ears flick. I looked up and then I saw Buck jumping out through the top of the bud that the leaves formed, just before it closed.

I was really taken by surprise, as I – honestly – didn't expect him to survive. When the weasel landed he wasted no time kicking the fruit towards me.

I caught it, still surprised and also wondering what the heck he was doing. I looked down to see what the fruit really looked like. It didn't look that 'special', but knowing that it came from such a dangerous plant made me feel special when I held it. It was like knowing you had gone through lots of efforts to get it, even though it was all Buck's effort.

When I looked up again I saw Buck running past me at full speed. Behind him I saw a squad of angry vines trying to get him, or now they seemed to go after me. It must've been the fruit!

"Don't just stand there Raccoon!" Buck yelled at me and I didn't need to hear that twice! I turned around and ran at full speed away from the plant.

This was crazy – not only because I was running from a plant, but because this looked like a sick game, since Buck asked me to 'play' the fruit to him whenever I was almost hit by a vine.

Finally I threw the fruit to him, but that seemed to be done the wrong way.

"No, you're supposed to throw it backwards when you play it!" Buck explained, or actually yelled as we ran. To my dismay he threw it right back to me!

I jumped to avoid getting caught when another vine attacked me. I overtook Buck quickly and threw the fruit to him.

"L-like that?" I asked, hoping _that_ was good enough.

It seemed to be okay, but suddenly Buck ran to the opposite side of the clearing.

"What the heck are you doing?" I yelled at him. "This isn't a game!"

Buck just turned his head and smiled at me. "Let's make it one, then!"

I knew that Buck was crazy, but this…! This _wasn't_ a game; running around chased by a giant plant _wasn't_ a game! But for some reason it made me excited and a smile formed on my lips. Suddenly I started running towards Buck. It was like I _wanted_ to play, even though I knew it was a bad idea.

Buck dodged a few vines before throwing the fruit to me. This time I kept going and ran the same direction as Buck.

* * *

><p>"That was fun," Buck sighed. We had stopped playing with the plant a few minutes ago and now we sat in the top of a tree. From up there we had a clear view over most of the dinosaur world, which looked very beautiful.<p>

"Yeah… It actually was," I agreed after taking another bite of the fruit we got from before. The fruit had cost us a lot of sweat and work, but it was worth when it tasted this good. It had a sweet, but also a little bitter taste. The closest I had ever been to eating fruit was berries, but if I had to avoid getting eaten by a giant plant, then it would be worth it!

"You're still going to find back alone?" Buck asked me.

I smiled a little. "Well…"

Maybe I shouldn't. There were several reasons why it would be smart to stay with Buck.

First up there's the fact that it might be safest in numbers down here (Yeah, two small mammals against a dinosaur fifty times their size seem to have a big chance, huh?).

My second reason was that he knew how to survive and probably had much more experience than I had, since he probably was older than me. His voice did sound a little older, but he didn't _look_ 'old'.

But the third reason was probably the best – I guess. If I stayed here with him, none of us would be alone anymore. And thus there was a little hope of keeping a little sanity before either he or I lost it completely.

But what about going back up to the surface? It seemed a little meaningless now, since it was warmer down here and there was probably also more food than in that frozen desert I called home.

"Actually… I'm not sure if I will go back…" I started, but Buck interrupted me.

"Fine, I can show you the way back," he said and balanced his knife on his index finger for a few seconds. "But I've got rule-…"

"No, no," I said. "I mean that I could just stay here… With you…"

There were a few seconds of silence where Buck just looked at me with his one blue eye. His lower fangs were visible outside his mouth, which I thought made him look a little goofier than usual.

"Fine, raccoon," Buck finally said after thinking a little. "But I've got rules."

"Rules?" I asked.

Buck nodded, looking very serious for once. He then raised his index finger into the air. "Rule number one: _Always_ listen to Buck!"

I wasn't sure if that would be so easy, since he was kind of insane, if I have to be straight up honest. But at least he knew what he was doing, so I nodded.

"Rule number two," Buck continued in a very dramatic voice, which he had used when he had talked about Rudy. "Stay in the _middle_ of the trail. And rule number 3…!"

Buck took a very deep breath and his pupils grew awfully small. I held my breath as well, expecting it to be something either important or crazy.

Then Buck finally said: "He who starts hallucinating shall have his head examined."

What was his point with that? Wouldn't it be more logical to get the heads examined of those who were seemingly crazy – like Buck?

"Aye?" Buck asked after I had thought about the rules for a while.

"Wh-… I mean yes… sure…"

Buck ended his lecture and walked over to a vine hanging from the tree. He jumped onto it and signaled for me to come join him. I stuffed the rest of the fruit into my mouth and ran over and grabbed onto the vine.

When I had a firm grip on the vine, Buck made a jerking motion on the vine. Suddenly it started to go downwards in short, quick jerking movements.

"How'd you do that?" I asked him surprised at how we went down.

"You'll learn," Buck explained and that was pretty much what he had to say about it.

I looked down and saw how we came closer and closer to the ground, but suddenly I heard a weird sound. It sounded like some weird sounds had been mixed into the wind.

"Buck, do you hear that?" I asked. "What is it?"

"It's the wind, singing to us," Buck explained. I had heard something about that the wind could 'speak', but I had never heard about that it should be able to sing.

"Okay, if you say so," I muttered, still a little bit confused as I tried to hear what the wind was singing, if it even was. All I could hear was really just the wind, but also a soft rumbling sound. It sounded a little unusual, but definitely not like singing.

"Now, if we head for the Plates of Woe, we might be able to catch up with him," Buck said when we were finally on the ground.

"Catch up with whom?" I asked with a frown.

"Rudy, who else?"

_Rudy?_ Buck's answer had truly chocked me since I thought that we were trying not to get eaten by Rudy. Now the weasel wanted us to go _after_ him! Just remembering the size of that monster sent chills down my spine and again it felt like we were being watched.

"What else would you expect, Ring-Tail?" Buck asked after reading my face, obviously. "We're on a Rudy-Hunt."

"What? There's no way that I'll be chasing that…"

"Wow-wow-wow-wow… wow…" Buck interrupted me. "You wanted to stay, right?"

I sighed. It was true. I had decided to stay with him so that he could teach me how to survive, not luring me in certain death. Finally I sighed: "Yeah…"

"Then there's no problem, right? Let's get to it!" Suddenly Buck started running into the forest while yelling "Ruuudyyy!"

I could do nothing but sigh at Buck's craziness and follow. I could hear several birds of the forest take off in either surprise or annoyance at the crazed out weasel when I ran, but I knew that I had to get used to things like this – if I could survive Buck, then Rudy wouldn't be a problem.


	4. The Crazy Things Keep on Coming!

It was late night when Buck and I finally decided to call it a day. We had been walking for hours and my feet were sore. I had tried to walk long distances before, but this walk was on the top of the list over long walks, if there is one.

"So, Ring Tail," Buck started as I made a fire with some wood I had gathered. "Are you hungry?"

Until Buck asked me that, I hadn't even noticed how hungry I felt. I also think the loud rumbling of my stomach was enough answer.

"Just stay here, I'll get us some food," Buck told me and wandered into the woods before I could even say anything.

I had nowhere to go, so I just sat down by the campfire and took a look around. The jungle did look prettier and more peaceful at night. I hadn't noticed when I arrived, but the jungle was actually very illuminated by the moonbeams that shone through the ice. When I had arrived I hadn't really noticed that everything was lid up by the moon down here. Again, it must have had something to do with the ice, which apparently made me the light stronger somehow; I'm not really sure…

"I'm back!" I almost chocked on the air at the sudden sound of Buck's voice. I looked over at the weasel and saw that he had brought several fruits and something meat-looking.

"Oh… Yeah…" I said trying not to sound annoyed at the way he had surprised me.

Soon we sat by the campfire, eating our food. The fruit Buck had gathered wasn't as delicious as the one we had gotten earlier today, but maybe it was just the effort that made it taste better.

As we ate none of us really said anything, until Buck broke the silence with a question: "Don't you think anybody will miss you if you stay down here?"

"Not really," I replied. There _wasn't_ anyone to miss me, since I had never had a friendship or a bond with anyone back on the surface.

"Really?" Buck raised an eyebrow and examined my face to look for hidden answers or something. It was a little annoying, but I tried my best to ignore it. "Don't you have any friends?"

"No."

"A girlfriend?"

"No."

"A boyfriend?"

"What! No!"

"Sorry, had to ask…" Buck excused himself. Then he asked: "Don't you have any family at all?"

"…" His last question shut me up because I'd never had any family and the topic always touch me deep. I had been alone and never settled down long enough to make friends and my family had abandoned me as a cub. It hadn't been something I usually talked about, since there was no one around to talk to.

"… No…" I finally said. I sighed and continued. "My family abandoned me a long time ago."

Now it was Buck's turn to be silent. It probably wasn't the answer he had hoped for and he hopefully understood my situation.

Then we just sat there and ate for, I think, two minutes without talking. The silence was killing me, but on the other hand I didn't want to talk about family and all that stuff.

"So where are we heading tomorrow?" I asked and broke the awkward silence.

"We'll most likely find Rudy somewhere around Lava Falls – that's where he headed when we left him," Buck explained. "But to get there we just have to get over the Chasm of Death."

"That doesn't sound like a nice place," I said with a frown. There probably weren't any locations down here that had 'nice' names and it was probably Buck who had come up with their names, since he was the only sign of – I guess – intelligent life down here.

"Well, it's nice at first until the fumes get to your brain," Buck muttered and it probably wasn't something I was really meant to hear and it also kind of freaked me out.

"Fumes!" I asked surprised and also a little bit shocked.

"… Then we'll just have to get past the rests of the Plates of Woe," Buck explained, totally ignoring my question about the fumes.

I just sat there for two seconds and tried to understand what he had said. "What do you mean with 'the rests of'?"

"I guess you'll see when we'll get there," Buck just said, ignoring my question again. It was actually starting to annoy me, but when I asked him about why he held back, he simply answered: "If I told you, then it wouldn't be any surprise when you saw it for yourself, would it?"

I didn't reply, but simply sighed at Buck's kind of logic, since it was kind of annoying, even though he was kind of right – if he warned about certain death, then I wouldn't go and it wouldn't be as… 'Fun'? I didn't know how Buck's brain worked and this Rudy-hunt could easily be my grave if he was going to lead me.

"I guess not," I finally said to Buck. I looked into the fire for a while.

"Don't you ever get lonely down here?" I finally asked after a while of silence. At least I knew that I would feel lonely if I had to spend my whole life alone… Oh wait – I had spent my whole life alone!

"Hmm… Not really. Sometimes maybe, but only when I can't find Rudy," Buck replied.

"When you can't find Rudy?" I asked. To me it – of course – didn't make the least bit of sense, but what could you expect from Buck? It was like he meant that Rudy somehow was his… 'friend', or rather playmate, since he chased him around. A playmate the size of a mountain and equipped with lots of razor-sharp teeth. Just the thought of the dinosaur sent chills down my spine. I didn't feel the same about Rudy that Buck did.

"Yes," Buck replied in a serious tone for once. "Chasing him is what I spend every day doing. If I can't find him it's just not the same."

"Oh… Okay."

"But it's always fun to meet a few tourists now and then," Buck said. Did this mean I wasn't the first intelligent life to get down here while Buck had been here?

"Like last time when I had a whole herd," Buck continued. He then added in a mutter: "Actually that was the only other time I've had tourists down here."

"Why were they here?" I asked. "Did they get here by accident, like I did?"

"No, not what I know off," Buck said. Then suddenly Buck lay back on his back.

_"Yes they did."_ Suddenly Buck stuck his foot forwards and I saw that there was some kind of dinosaur skull on his foot. It looked really weird and the voice Buck had spoken with didn't help at all.

"No, they came looking for their sloppy, green thing," Buck growled at his foot. I, who had never seen anything this crazy, just sat there and watched. It almost reminded me of how I used to argue with my brain, sadly enough.

"What green, sloppy thing?" I asked. I did nothing to stop the weasel from what he was doing, since it was actually kind of entertaining to watch his yell at his foot.

"Oh, he was a sloth, not really a…" The skull – actually it was just Buck himself – interrupted Buck in his sentence.

_"He was a sloppy, green thing! He smelled like a buzzard's butt sprayed by a bunch of skunks, remember?"_

"Stop interrupting me! You're not real!" With those final words, Buck kicked the skull off his foot and it flew into the jungle. As it did, Buck made some really weird noises, as if the skull was still yelling at him.

For a while I said nothing, but I eventually asked him what had happened back then.

Buck then explained how a group of mammals, two mammoths, a saber-toothed tiger and two possums, had come down to the world under the ice and how he had helped them find their sloth-friend, or, as Buck called him, 'a sloppy, green thing'.

"That sounds… Kind of unrealistic…" I said when he was done explaining. The story _had_ been interesting and all, but also a little hard to believe.

Buck just chuckled to himself at my comment. "Then you should've been there."

…

"Now, now. We survived so no reason to look like that, eh?" Buck tried to get the stony and angry expression off my face. If you're wondering what had made me mad at him, then let's say it considered me, Buck, a few dinosaur and their breakfast. To cut a crazy story short, Buck and I looked for breakfast in the forest when we eventually found some fruit and vegetables. When we had eaten the food we found out some dinosaur that, according to Buck, claimed that it was his. I don't speak reptilian, but apparently Buck does… somehow.

The dinosaur had been one of those with the big, sphere-like heads, which I'm from now on will call exactly that – Sphere-Heads.

Being as stubborn as he is, Buck kept insisting that it was our food, which eventually led to having an entire pack of Sphere-Heads after us. Luckily we were able to cut them off by jumping off a cliff and into a lake.

Now I was wet all over, but at least not cold; I had almost forgotten what being cold felt like. Buck, of course, seemed to be fine with the fact that he almost got us killed – again!

"Hmm… okay, let's see this from the bright side," I said in a sarcastic and a little angry and annoyed tone as I squished water out of my tail's fur. "Oh wait – there isn't any!"

Okay, Buck was either completely crazy or he had a weird sense of humor; he started laughing at me! I just glared at him, while I waited for him to stop laughing.

"What's so funny?" I asked as his laughter dimmed a little down. By now I was almost over boiling with anger and could go off any second now.

"It's… it's just that you've realized it," Buck said and removed a tear from his eye. Apparently he was even _crying_ from laughter.

"What?"

"… That… life down here doesn't always have a bright side." Now Buck's tone had gotten more serious, even though he was still chuckling a little. I raised an eyebrow at his answer. It was really what I had imagined – actually it was _far_ from what I had imagined to hear.

Suddenly I understood Buck's point – but not what was so funny about it. Living down here for as long as he had, he wouldn't just know almost everything about survival, but also about what could happen if you expected too much and if a plan went wrong and so on.

"… You're right…" I turned to Buck and suddenly I didn't feel as wet as before, but now I simply felt naked. Naked as if he could see right through me and knew how I felt about everything – all the time. At least that's what it felt like. "I'm sorry that I…"

"Nah, don't mention it," Buck stopped me. "It'll probably be one of the last times you'll hear me say something right and certainly something sane."

I smiled a little. Not at the fact that he kind of admitted that he was crazy. No, I smiled at the fact that Buck was okay with me, acting like a jerk a few moments ago.

"Well, if that was it, then let's get going 'Coon," Buck said and started walking. I quickly caught up with him and I could already feel how the tropical heat had dried much of my fur. 'Air-drying' wasn't really something I was used to, due to the fact that I came from a cold and frozen ice-desert. But I liked the feeling.

The open field we walked on was pretty big, and I couldn't help but wonder how big the world under the ice was other than what I had seen this far, which wasn't that much. There weren't that many dinosaurs on the field we walked across – only a few herbivore-ones. They didn't seem to notice us at all, even when we walked close by. Not that I was complaining…

"Are there any other predators down here? I mean other than Rudy," I added as we walked.

"Well there is one other big dinosaur with three babies," Buck explained as we finally reached the woods. When we were in between the tall trees he continued: "And then there are a lot of small ones around the Plates of Woe. And then there are some flying ones."

"That's all?" I asked sarcastically. To me it sounded like a lot, but it probably wasn't a big deal to Buck, since surviving was just his everyday.

"Yes, that's about it," Buck replied, again ignoring my sarcasm. Maybe he didn't know what sarcasm was or maybe he couldn't hear it when I used it or maybe he just didn't care.

"Now there can't be far," Buck said after a few minutes.

"You can smell the fumes?" I asked skeptically. It was the only thing he had told me – or at least hinted – about the Plates of Woe. It sounded kind of impossible, but I didn't know how good weasels' sense of smell was. But to break it to me, Buck said: "No, I've just been here before."

I rolled my eyes at Buck's answer and just kept walking beside him. This part of the forest looked a little more deserted and uninhabited than where we came from.

Suddenly we came to a clearing. What was special about this clearing was that there were some small mountains in it. It actually kind of looked like a volcano or something like that, but I wasn't positive about that theory.

"Is that it?" I asked as we approached the mountains. "I don't see any chasm."

Buck just chuckled a little. "It's there. Prepare for the biggest laugh of your life!" Then I heard him mutter: "Might as well be the last one."


	5. Why'd You Keep Bucking Me Out?

_Prepare for the biggest laugh of your life. **Prepare** for the biggest laugh of your life. Prepare **for** the biggest laugh of your life. Prepare for the **biggest** laugh of your life._

No matter how many times I repeated it in my head and no matter how many times I tried to pronounce it different in my head, it still didn't make any sense. These words were exactly what Buck had said to me before entering the mountains where the Chasm of Death would be found. At first I had been a little skeptic and held a little back, since I had already found out that Buck could lead me to certain death – it had almost happened before, just check the other chapters!

But anyways, Buck and I had been walking through the rocky path for a minute or so before we came to the actual chasm. The Chasm of Death was, as I had expected, a huge crack in the mountain. I walked over to the edge and looked down and was surprised to see that there was some kind of red smoke – or fumes – coming up from the bottom. Somehow the chasm sent a bright red light up at us and when I looked down at myself, my fur had a weird maroon color to it. The fumes had a weird and kind of 'thick' smell. I had never smelled anything like it, but I didn't like the smell of it.

"Hmm… That's something new," Buck said when he stood next to me. His tone had been a little surprised, which scared me a little, since I guessed that if something surprised Buck, it had to be bad.

"What's new?" I asked Buck as I still looked down into the Chasm of Death. The more I looked down at the chasm, the more insecure I got. I actually started to doubt that following Buck was a good idea again.

"Oh, it's just the fumes," Buck replied.

"The fumes? But you told me about them before we even got here!" This didn't make any sense to me. Why would this be something new to Buck if he could tell me about it last night? But maybe insanity was also followed by insomnia, I don't know.

"No, no, I mean it used to be green fumes." Buck said. His tone was insecure and a little worried, which made _me_ insecure. This could be a pretty bad journey – or at least worse than it already _had_ been.

Buck walked over to the chasm's edge and started slashing his knife against some vines that were hanging in the cave's roof. Suddenly one very long vine appeared. The one end of the vine was above us, while the rest of the vine disappeared into the cloud of fumes.

Soon Buck gave me some kind of long, thick bone. It was almost as long as I was tall and it was the same width as Buck's long weasel-body. It was kind of heavy, but not heavier than I could still carry it with one hand. I quickly figured out that Buck wanted us to slide across the chasm with the help of the bones. It seemed kind of logical and 'Buck-proof' to me, so what could possibly go wrong?

Buck went first. He put his bone of top of the vine and grabbed it with both hands. He took his knife into his mouth and held it between his sharp teeth.

"Oh, and don't breathe in the fumes," he reminded me before he took off and soon he was gliding into the red fume-cloud.

I was hesitating a little. What if the vine snapped or something at our combined weight? Or what if my bone snapped? It looked thick and massive though, but still…

With a sigh I put my bone on the vine and took off. The white and straight surface of the bone made gliding across the chasm just as easy as it had looked when Buck did it. It was actually quite fun to slide at such high speed, but as I worked my way through the fume-cloud, I couldn't help but wonder what the fumes would do to me if they entered my lungs. Would I die right there or would they have some kind of mental effect on me? I'm usually not a person who takes lots of risks, so I didn't take the chance.

But soon the fun of the ride would come to a dead end; right there in front of me on the vine was Buck, who didn't move at all. He must have stopped for some reason, I thought. I wasn't able to control my speed, so soon I bumped into him, which did send us a little forward, but not much. When I looked up ahead at the vine, I understood why Buck had stopped; the vine seemed to go _upwards_ instead of downwards, which I had first thought, since it did so the first twenty meters or so.

Buck looked back at me and when I frowned with a face that said 'Great, what do we do now?' he simply shrugged and sent me a face that said 'What? This isn't my fault!'

If it wasn't because I had to hold my breath, I would have sighed in annoyance at this. Now what? Were we just bound to die from suffocation or whatever the fumes would do to us? I couldn't believe that this should be how my life would end – on a vine in the middle of a red fume-cloud above a deep chasm.

Just as I thought Buck had given up on life, he suddenly grabbed the vine with his hands. I thought that he just wanted us to climb across the vine and therefore I did the same, but to my surprise Buck climbed past me as soon as I did so.

Before I could even wonder why he did this, he let go of the vine with one hand, grabbed his knife and – to my shock, surprise and dismay – he cut the vine. We fell downwards with great speed and if it wasn't because I held my breath I would scream or yell at Buck for doing this. I knew that we would hit the chasm's wall sooner or later and an impact with this speed would definitely be dangerous and it was possible that we wouldn't survive. I looked at Buck who was beneath me, but he had a confident smile on his face.

I was unable to see anything through the fume-cloud, but suddenly I saw the cave wall come towards us with high speed and before I could even brace myself, we hit the wall.

Most of the air I had held in escaped my lungs because of the impact and I almost choked on my tongue. I had hit the wall with the entire front part of my body as well as my left cheek – which was left numb and emotionless by now.

But the important part was that the part of the vine that we were hanging from hadn't snapped. I wasted no time and started climbing upwards. I climbed fast due to the fact that I was low on oxygen and soon would become suffocated if I didn't get out of the fume cloud.

Soon I was able to see how the cloud started getting thinner and I could almost feel the fresh cave air. I put the last effort into climbing. There wasn't far now and I could already see some of the cave ceiling. My heart beat very fast and the air in my lungs was almost used up, so I had to make one last effort and I'd be able to breathe properly again.

Finally I reached the top and in a dash I was on the cave floor again. I was flat on my back and I started breathing in the fresh air like nothing else mattered – which it didn't at this point. Soon I was joined by Buck, even though he seemed to breathe in calmer than I did.

"Whew that was close, huh?" he asked. When he spoke he also sounded somewhat exhausted, which I understood, due to the fact that we had almost held our breaths for two minutes or something.

I was completely out of breath, so all I could do was to nod in agreement. I had done my best not to breathe in the fumes, but I was still curious about what they would do to me if I did.

"What would have happened if I didn't hold my breath?" I asked when my heartbeats and my breath were at a normal speed.

"Well, usually they'd make you laugh till you died," Buck explained. I had never heard of such a thing before, but since I came into 'Buck's world' I had learned that everything wasn't what it looked like down here. "But I don't know what it means when they're red."

To my surprise Buck got up and walked over to the edge. I joined him and soon we stood in front of the chasm again. Through the fume-cloud I could see some light high above us on the other side. The vine seemed to emerge from that direction. Did we really come from way up there? Most of the vine was flat in the air for some reason, while it only went downwards at the beginning.

Suddenly I saw Buck, to my shock, stick his head into the fume cloud – while he still stood on the edge. I heard him breathe in heavily to get fumes into his nostrils. I was a little worried about Buck – actually very worried. I mean, he actually didn't know what these fumes would do to him when he breathed them in. But we were about to find out.

When Buck stood back up, he looked very dizzy. It looked like he had been hanging upside down for like two days and was standing on solid ground for the first time in a while.

"Buck, are you okay?" I asked with a worried voice. At first he didn't even seem to notice me at all, but simply stood where he was and dangerously swayed from side to side like a leaf in the wind. Then he finally seemed to realize that I was there too. He took a few very insecure steps towards me. During the last step he accidentally tripped, but found support on my shoulders. He looked up at me and poked me in the middle of my forehead.

"Have I ever… told you how good you are at being… a raccoon?" Buck asked me, sounding very intoxicated and out of his mind. He probably didn't even know what he was saying.

I pulled a little back to stop him from poking me in the forehead. He almost fell over at this, but I managed to catch him and then I tried to get him back on his legs, which didn't go too well.

"Buck? Buck, wake up," I said and tried to see if slapping him repeatedly would help. I tried for like ten seconds, but I simply gave up.

* * *

><p>"Did I really do that?" Buck asked me across the campfire. It was night and Buck was finally back to normal – or whatever he usually was… I mean, he usually acts like a crazy weasel, which was dropped on his head as a baby.<p>

"Yes," I replied. I had just explained what he had done after he took the fumes into his lungs and what he had done all day – poking my forehead and telling me how good a raccoon I was.

"Sounds like fun," Buck said after a few seconds of silence.

"Fun?" I asked. I didn't see the fun in having Buck being intoxicated. The effect of the fumes had worn off when I gave him something to eat for dinner. It was some kind of berry. It made the effect go away, but also made Buck run into the forest and from what I could hear, he threw up. "I was really worried about you and I thought you had lost your sanity and would go like that for the rest of your life!"

"Relax, mate," Buck told me. "I've already lost my sanity, but I don't complain."

I calmed a little down at this, but I was still a little annoyed at how easy Buck took on it all. I had almost died from worry and now he only said that it sounded like fun?

Then Buck rolled onto his back, put his hands behind his head and stared into the air. I looked upwards and saw that the treetops parted right above us, so that we could see the ice barrier and the starry sky even higher above. It was pretty just like every other night down here. I had already gotten used tot the fact that there was a thin layer of ice above our heads, so it didn't make me feel claustrophobic anymore.

"Beautiful, huh?" Buck asked and brought the subject to something else – the sky.

"Yeah…" I replied as we both gazed into the sky. The only star I really recognized was the brightest of them all. It was there every night and I had even heard that it showed where north was. It had always sounded a little unlikely to me, but I didn't know how to navigate by the stars, so I couldn't say too much about that. I got up and walked over and lied down next to Buck.

"Don't you ever miss the surface?" I asked Buck as we kept gazing into the starry sky.

"Hmm… Not really," Buck replied. I nodded as I fully understood that he had adapted more to life down here than on the surface. "There aren't any giant reptiles to wrestle on the surface."

I just nodded again and pretended as if that was a good argument, even though I guessed that Buck wouldn't have anything else to do if it wasn't for Rudy. I actually didn't know what I'd be doing if I ever returned to the surface; trying to survive Buck's craziness had become a regular thing by now.

"Haven't you ever thought about going back?" I asked after a few seconds of silence.

"I can't deny that I haven't," Buck replied thoughtfully. "But doing that would feel wrong. I feel like I belong down here."

I understood what he meant, but I didn't really think that I belonged down here. I was used to the hard struggle for survival on the surface, but the struggle down here was even worse. It wasn't like I had gigantic monsters running around where I came from. But maybe I just needed to get used to it. Maybe it wasn't as hard as I thought at this moment; I mean, after what Buck had told me, he'd only been down here for almost a year soon, and he seemed perfectly adapted to it. If I spent a year down here, I'd also get used to it – if I survived that long.

I wasn't as tough and daring as Buck and if I hadn't met him, I'd probably already be dead by now. If Buck didn't teach me how to be like him, or if I simply couldn't improve myself, I wouldn't be able to survive down here.

"But we'd better get some sleep, we have to track down Rudy tomorrow," Buck suddenly told me and got to his feet. "I'll keep a watch."

Buck always kept watch. Due to being a raccoon, I'm actually kind of naturally nocturnal, so I usually don't sleep deeper than I'd be able to wake up instantly. I know I slept kind of heavy the night after I arrived down here, but remember that I said 'kind of nocturnal,' so it doesn't count.

"Maybe I should keep watch… just for once," I suggested when I stood up too. By letting Buck get some sleep after a long day, which he didn't really remember, I'd also be able to make up for what he had done to me – which is both good and bad.

Buck seemed to think about this for a few seconds. I was sure that it wasn't because he was worried that I couldn't pull it off, but maybe it was because he was concerned about me. At least he had his knife.

"Alright, 'Coon," he finally said. It bothered me that he sounded a little unsure though. It really surprised me when he suddenly threw his knife to me. "Just in case something happens."

It really surprised me because it seemed to mean a lot to Buck and even when he stuck his head into the Chasm of Death, he'd held it in his hand. I carefully took a closer look at the knife. It was very streamlined and sleek and it almost felt like touching ice again, except it wasn't quite as cold.

Soon Buck had gone to sleep while I stayed up. I hadn't kept watch for more than two minutes before I realized just how boring it was. Everything was silent, except a few, very distant dinosaur roars and I just sat there with nothing to kill the time. The earlier nights I had seen Buck sit and carve some small Rudy-figures out of wooden chunks, but I already knew that I couldn't do that. So I just sat down by the campfire and just… sat there.

Suddenly I felt like someone was watching me. At first I guessed that it was just my imagination, but when I heard rustling from the thicket behind us, I jumped up and held Buck's knife ready to attack.

I then heard heavy footsteps coming towards me from the thicket. Was it Rudy? If it was, then it was a bad moment for Buck to be sleeping – mainly because I needed someone to save me here!

When the footsteps came closer, I simply lost it; I quickly rushed over and woke Buck up. Even with a knife, there wouldn't be much I could do against a dinosaur as big as Rudy.

As soon as I told Buck that it might be Rudy, he dashed up and grabbed his knife out of my hand. At least he knew just about what to do in a situation like this.

"So are you going to come out…? Rudy…" Buck asked and again he said 'Rudy' in that creepy voice he usually used when he said his name.

Suddenly some kind of dinosaur came out from the thicket. It wasn't much bigger than us. It had a long neck and a long tail and walked on two legs. One weird thing about it was that its eyes seemed to look in every other direction that forwards. While it ran past us it made some kind of weird burping-noises. It definitely wasn't Rudy, but it reminded me of how Buck had acted all day. Suddenly it was followed by a bunch of the same weird dinosaurs. Obviously they lived in packs.

Buck's ears dropped and so did his mood. He looked at me with his one eye with an expression that showed his disappointment.

"Sorry," I said in an embarrassed tone. "I really thought that it was…."

I didn't even get to finish my sentence when another footstep was heard. This one was way louder and massive sounding.

Then Buck said exactly what I didn't want him to say: "It's him…"

Shortly after, a loud roar filled the night. It was very close to us and made all my fur stand on end. It sounded like it came from right behind us!

"Now what?" I asked.

"Now?" Buck asked. "This is where we run for our lives."

Next thing I knew, Buck and I ran through the jungle. I had no idea about where we were going and I didn't think Buck even did. But I _knew_ that Rudy was right behind us; I could hear him as he crashed through the vegetation and I could hear how other dinosaurs fled in horror from the colossal beast. Now I actually kind of wished that I hadn't offered to stay up and that I had been suspicious when those weird burping dinosaurs had rushed past us.

Right in front of us there was a big river, which made a dead end for us. Now I thought that we were done for, since we had a huge predator behind us and a river with who knew what dangers in it.

But without the least hesitation, Buck jumped into the river. I cursed myself for this, but since there was nothing else to do, I followed Buck, even though it was probably a bad idea.


	6. Alone?

The water had been colder than expected. I returned to the surface after air and started following Buck as he started to swim down the river. As I swam, I looked back and saw that Rudy had walked into the river. The river was pretty deep and hopefully Rudy couldn't swim. But since we all know how lucky I am, it wasn't a surprise to see how the huge dinosaur gracefully swam through the water with ease.

Rudy swam with his body flat out, so that only his back and his long snout were above the water. I finally reached Buck and grabbed him by the shoulder. "What do we do now?"

We kept swimming and Buck told me that we just had to keep going, but suddenly the stream in the river started increasing and suddenly we rushed down the river – we didn't even have to move a muscle ourselves! All we had to do was keep our heads out of the water.

Suddenly Buck grabbed my paw and started swimming towards land. I would say that we moved too fast to get out of the water, but that wasn't even his intention at all. Buck grabbed a big piece of bark from the river's edge.

"What are you doing?" I asked him surprised. But fortunately it looked like he wanted us to sail on the bark. We quickly climbed aboard and as I did so, I saw that Rudy was right behind us. He lifted his head above the water and roared angrily as he seemed ready to eat us. It actually felt kind of weird that'd he'd want to spent time on this… hunting a raccoon and a weasel. Whatever, Buck seemed to enjoy this at least.

"Not to spoil your fun," I told Buck as we sailed down the river. "But Rudy is closing in."

Actually Rudy almost got me after I said this, but his jaws missed with just an inch or so. Being this close to an animal this dangerous gave a jolt of excitement, but also a deep fear for his teeth and strong jaws.

Buck handed me his knife and stood up on the piece of bark. I was very unsure of what he was doing now, but suddenly Rudy's movements seemed to push us forwards and soon we were surfing down the river.

Buck stood up and was able to steer the piece of bark down through the river, which had begun to run faster, but maybe it was just because Rudy started to try and get us more and made more movement, which drove us forwards.

Suddenly Buck unexpectedly surfed over a boulder that had its tip above the water, just like an iceberg.

Before I could even react, we flew into the air – at least three meters. Buck 'woo-hoo ed' all the way down, while I too surprised to react to the sudden jump. When the bark landed in the river again, I almost fell off.

"Was that really necessary?" I asked annoyed when we kept surfing down the river.

I looked behind me and saw that something had stopped Rudy. It seemed to be a steam of small fish. I couldn't quite understand how some small fish steam could stop a dinosaur as big as Rudy. That was until I saw the jaws they had. Those were almost bigger than my forearm!

The fishes attacked Rudy's legs and as we drifted away, we could only watch the dinosaur trying to kill the fishes.

"What kinds of fishes were they?" I asked Buck.

"Don't know," Buck said as he avoided one as it suddenly appeared out of nowhere. "But don't worry about them, we'll be fine."

"Don't worry about them?" Again I was annoyed at how Buck seemed so calm about it all. "They could bite our heads off!"

Suddenly one of the fishes jumped up and locked its jaws around Buck's head. I flinched in surprise, since I thought that it had bitten his head off, but then I heard him talk from inside the fish's mouth. "That's not the point. But this isn't a good example."

* * *

><p>When I woke up the next morning, I found myself on the bark we had been floating on the previous night. It was by the shore of something that looked like a lake. My feet were in the water and when I remembered the fishes from yesterday, I quickly withdrew them. The one that had closed its mouth around Buck's head hadn't been able to damage his neck and it had been easy to remove it, so he had been okay.<p>

Speaking of him, I looked around for Buck, but he was nowhere to be seen. The lake was surrounded by tall trees and thick vegetation. If I'd have to go out and find him, it could take forever. But I guessed that I'd have to start sooner or later.

I entered the vegetation and soon I was surrounded by trees that were even taller than Rudy. The trees made the forest dark because the sun's rays weren't able to get through because of the leaves in the treetops, which made me insecure, since danger could pop out of nowhere.

Another thing that made me insecure was the fact that the forest was completely silent. It made me insecure because it meant that if someone was near, they'd probably be able to hear me. But on the bright side, this was one of the first times I'd really been able to think clearly since I met Buck.

_Okay, just because Buck isn't around, does it mean that he's in trouble?_ I thought to myself as I made my way through the jungle. Then I frowned at my thoughts. _Maybe it kind of does…_

Suddenly I could see what seemed to be a clearing up ahead to my right. It surprised me a little since the jungle had seemed to be much deeper than that, but when I came to the clearing, I was in for a surprise.

It wasn't just a clearing. All the trees were turned over and it looked like something crazy had happened and just recently! The trees' roots still seemed to be moist from the soil and the leaves on the trees didn't look dry.

There were footprints on the ground and they seemed to be from a carnivore. The footprints were enormous and had three toes on each foot. Whatever they came from, it seemed to have been chasing something… or someone.

_No,_ I told myself. _No one can kill Buck._

It sounded unrealistic and no matter how much I wanted to believe it, I found it very hard to do so. But Buck knew how to survive and it wasn't even sure that this something had been after him.

But just as I was almost convinced, I saw something that made my mood drop to the lowest: Buck's knife.

The knife's blade penetrated the ground, so that it stood up vertical.

"…" I wanted to say something to myself to ensure myself that Buck was okay, but nothing came out. I couldn't believe that Buck would be dead… He'd never leave his knife on such a place, so he could only be dead.

I walked over and pulled the knife out of the ground. The blade was a little dirty, but it seemed to be in good condition still. I didn't know what to do, but if Buck was dead, I'd have to continue on my own. But where should I go? We were far away from where I came into the dinosaur world, so now what? Maybe I could follow the river back to where we came from!

_Yeah, that's it!_ I thought. _All I have to do is go back and…_ I slapped my forehead. _But what direction did I come from?_

Not this again. I had hoped that I wouldn't get lost like this. But it looked like my bad luck had replaced Buck as my companion. If this continued, I wouldn't even be able to survive for long.

I grumbled a little to myself, annoyed at my bad luck. On the other hand, it seemed like a good idea to just continue forwards and try and find Buck and find out if he was still alive. If he was still alive, where could he be? It would only make sense if he was dead, since he had just left his knife behind. Or maybe he knew he'd be in danger and left it for me? It sounded uncertain, but you could never know about Buck.

The only thing I really could do was to follow the trail of turned over trees and just hope that it would lead me somewhere. The trees were humongous and I couldn't help but wonder how much force it would take to turn them over. They were almost wider than Rudy's legs and if he'd been the one turning them over, it wouldn't even surprise me.

As I came further into the jungle, the trail of turned over trees started to die out. I started running to see if there were any more turned over trees up ahead, but to my luck, which is a rare thing for me to say, the trail continued and seemed to go all the way through the entire forest. I sighed with relief and just set out in a slower tempo.

I held the knife in my hand with a firm grip, just in case something would happen. I could hear some dinosaur noises in the distance, but it sounded like they were far away.

Suddenly I heard a twig snap to my right. I stopped, grabbed the knife with both hands, ready to defend myself and waited to see who or what it was. Suddenly a dash of blue scales and feathers came towards me. I was too slow to react and soon the dinosaur had tackled me.

I heard it snarl above me, but I tried my best to keep its head away from mine. I managed to push him off and then I just started running in panic – I was panicking so much that I had forgotten all about the knife I had I my hand.

Suddenly I heard more footsteps, which were running too. I turned around and saw that an entire pack had joined the blue dinosaur from before. Now I was sure that I was going to die; sooner or later I'd probably become exhausted and then… it'd be over.

* * *

><p>This is surrently the shortest chapter of the story, but I suffer from writer's block when I write on this story, so please don't kill me... I hope you understand...<p>

Next chapter will be longer, I promise! ;'(


	7. A Look Into My Past

Hi, my name is Silva. I'm a raccoon and I live during the ice age. I used to just wander around with nowhere to go. Once I fell into a crack in the ice and into some kind of exotic utopia world… inhabited by dinosaurs.

If that wasn't weird enough, I met some weasel, named Buck. At first I had been startled by this new world and I didn't even want Buck's help. But soon I came to realize that I needed his help in order to survive. I had doubted his 'rules' for some time, since rule umber one was "Always Listen to Buck," and if you were me, you'd find it pretty hard.

I had regretted several times and I had doubted that it had even been a good idea to go with Buck… yes, I had been swinging between thinking that it was the best thing that ever happened to me and thinking that it was the worst.

Right now, I was going with the worst.

Buck was dead, I was all alone and some blue dinosaurs were chasing me through the jungle, trying to eat me. All I had was my leg muscles that enabled me to run and Buck's knife, even though I was panicking too much to remember.

The forest's vegetation was very thick and it was hard to see what was up ahead.

I saw that the trees up ahead were growing on the trail and Buck had told me to stay in the middle of the trail. But what if there wasn't any trail? I didn't want to waste the time and turned left into the thicket of the forest.

Maybe it hadn't been a good idea. The forest floor was covered in moss and it was hard to get a firm grip with my feet and I was close to slipping several times. And to make matters worse, it was very bumpy to run in here.

I looked backwards to see how far behind my followers were, but unfortunately they were right behind me. If I didn't lose them soon, I'd run out of energy.

Suddenly the dinosaur that followed me stopped running and soon they were out of sight.

_Stupid reptiles,_ I thought, but too soon. There was no time to celebrate just yet.

Next thing I knew, I fell down a cliff. Luckily, I grabbed a branch that was hanging out of the cliff just in time.

I sighed in relief as I was just hanging there and I realized just how lucky I had been, since there was a branch. I probably would have been dead if it hadn't been there.

As I wiped the sweat off of my forehead, I heard the dinosaurs above me.

I quickly climbed towards the cliff's edge and tried to make myself as invisible as it was possible.

I could hear how the dinosaurs growled as well as making various other sounds above me, but fortunately, they forgot about their sense of smell, since it didn't take long before they retreated.

For a moment, I just stayed where I was and trying to think of what to do now.

I looked upwards and thought about climbing up, but the edge of the cliff was too far above me, so I couldn't reach the edge.

I looked downwards and that didn't make it any better, since there was a very – and I mean VERY – long way down. If I fell down from up here, I would most likely not survive.

I then remembered the knife in my one had. I might be able to use it to climb up.

This was one of the times that I wished that Buck was there. He would have known what to do in a situation like this… but he wasn't here… he was probably dead.

I sighed to myself as I sincerely hoped that my friend was still alive. If I didn't find him, the only option would be to return to the icy world I came from.

But I had almost gotten used to the hard, dangerous and unpredictable life down here as well as the temperature. My fur had gotten thinner since I came down here and I'd probably freeze to death if I returned in such a condition. But what if I had no other choice? And would I rather freeze to death or get eaten alive by a dinosaur? I actually think option two was better… not saying that I would want that in any way, of course.

Suddenly my bad luck returned – the branch I was hanging from was starting to make sounds that made me very insecure.

_No, no… please don't snap…_ I thought, almost pleading the branch. The sound became even worse and closed my eyes I braced myself for the fall that would soon come.

But the branch didn't snap. I opened my eyes and looked up at the branch and saw that it was very close to snap, but luckily it hadn't. If I could just put my weight differently, so that it for sure wouldn't…

Soon I was falling. How come this always happened? Whenever I hoped for something, the complete opposite happened! So typical!

Instead of screaming, I just sighed and crossed my arms as I fell; I was going to die anyways. I then saw my life flash before my eyes. I had heard about it before, but always thought that it was something that people made up, but it was there; everything that's ever happened.

* * *

><p><em>I saw two raccoons sitting on a wooden log in the middle of the forest. The weirdest thing was that it was as if I was there and saw it from my own point of view.<em>

_The raccoons on the log were a male and a female and the male seemed to be white for some reason, just like the snow on the branches on the trees that surrounded them. The female had something in her arms: a little raccoon-cub. He had grey fur, but not as grey as his mom; it almost looked… silvery._

_It's me, I thought, but before I could think further about it, the picture changed._

_Now I saw how my parents ran through the forest, while carrying me. The forest didn't look like the one I saw before; it looked more like the dinosaur world! Did this mean that they had been here before me?_

_I could see the fear in their eyes and I could almost feel the intensity and panic that my parents did as they ran._

_Suddenly I saw a pack of strange creatures. I had never seen anything like them before, but whatever it was, they swiftly raced through the air. They looked like birds, but had no feathers… and were way bigger. They were covered in bluish scales and had long, bat-like wings and long necks._

_My dad suddenly told my mom to just keep going and before she could do anything, he turned around to face the flying creatures. He picked up a few rocks and threw them at the creatures, which immediately made them chase him instead._

_My mom had me in her arms and watched as her mate fled into the woods with the flying monsters closely behind him._

_But before she could do anything, a few of the flying monsters chased after her instead. She quickly started running towards a cave wall. It had an opening, which was just a little bigger than I was at that time._

_My mom quickly ran over to the little opening and seemingly told me to go inside. But then the picture changed again._

_Next up were many pictures, almost moving too fast for me to see. There was me returning to the ice age; me trying to catch a fish for the first time; me running from a saber-toothed tiger; me entering an icy cave; me falling through the air; me running through the jungle; and at last, Buck and me, climbing across the Chasm of Death._

* * *

><p>I was brought back to reality when something hit me; like literally. I fell down through branches and leaves and I was completely disorientated, but I didn't really care; I had just seen parts of my life that I didn't even remember! If it happened to you, you'd be scared too!<p>

Suddenly I hit the ground. Luckily the trees above me had taken most of the speed, but it still hurt to hit the ground and I also had a few bruises. But I survived none the less.

For a few seconds I just laid there, doing nothing. I just tried to realize that I had been in the dinosaur world before. I had thought that it was something completely new, but if my parents really had been here before, then why didn't I recognize it – even a little? I know it must've been a long time ago, but sometimes you remember stuff.

But what if it had all been something my brain had made up? Maybe it was… I mean, Buck had turned insane from being down here, so why wouldn't I?

I finally got onto my feet and looked around. The forest I had landed in was very deep and the ground was covered in soft mos. I was usually lucky when it came to surviving something deadly, but otherwise, I was usually not lucky.

The knife had fallen out of my hand on the way down and it had landed a little away. I walked over and picked it up. It seemed to be fine and unharmed, unlike me.

I looked around another time and tried to decide where to go now. I decided to just pick a random direction, since it'd probably lead me somewhere.

When I got into the thicket, I realized just how much I needed Buck's knife to get through it; if I didn't use it to cut through the vegetation, I wouldn't even stand a chance against it.

Soon I found a good way to do it and it went pretty easy. The only thing that kept me going was a thought that said that I had to find my way to the surface; if Buck was dead, I couldn't just try and find him and risk my own life… No I'm kidding; of course I was only trying to find Buck!

Not only did I miss the weasel and his weird ways of doing everything or the fact that he was my only friend, but I also needed him like no one else. He kept me alive and helped me whenever I faced the unknown. He had also saved me a few times, so I guess I owed him that.

* * *

><p>Around sunset, the jungle was completely peaceful. The evening breeze softly blew through the jungle's leaves and vines as the only audio was the rustling leaves and a few dinosaur roars in the distance. Yes, everything and everyone was happy and satisfied.<p>

All, but one raccoon who ran for his life – again. That raccoon was me.

I could hear the three dinosaurs behind me and I didn't waste a second as I used Buck's knife to cut my way through the forest. If I hadn't had it, the three dinosaurs would have killed me.

They were accompanied by a larger dinosaur and they seemed to be juveniles, so I guessed that it had been a little family; a little bloodthirsty and carnivorous family, so to say.

I hadn't paid much attention to their appearance since they were trying to eat me, but all I knew was that they kind of looked like weird birds covered in brown scales and were twice as tall as myself. But even with stubby legs, they were fast as heck!

I could hear the young dinosaurs as they came closer and closer, even though I ran as fast as I could. I was getting a little exhausted, but I knew I would have to keep going if I didn't want to end up as dinner.

Suddenly something big and scaly landed in front of me and blocked my way. It was a long and sleek tail and before I knew it, I was lifted into the air. Something big and scaly had a grip on my long tail and I could feel how the teeth of the dinosaur just barely touched my actual tail, while the fur that made it look big was squeezed by the big lips that also held me.

I turned my head and saw the huge and massive body of the dinosaur. It was huge, but I strongly doubted that it was nearly as big as Rudy. It had brown scales that kind of matched the forest floor, but some of the scales were also so dark that they almost looked black.

The dinosaur mom held me high above the ground and soon the youngsters started jumping up and down, obviously trying to get me. Even though they weren't able to jump high enough, I twisted my body, just to make sure that they didn't get a hold of me with their sharp teeth.

"Put me down!" I yelled at the adult dinosaur. I had found out that dinosaurs seemed to understand mammals, but I couldn't understand what they were saying though, so this couldn't really turn into a conversation or anything, not on my level of understanding at least.

The dinosaur mom simply growled at my reply and for a moment I was afraid that she would let go of me.

"Or actually," I started again. "What about you put me down and don't let your kids eat me…?"

Once again I was replied by a snarl from the dinosaur, but for some reason she still didn't let go of me. Then I figured out that she and her kids were probably just playing with me in some kind of dark, twisted carnivore-game…

Suddenly she let go and I fell to the ground. I knew that the dinosaur babies were waiting for me to hit the ground and they would probably start eating me alive when I did.

I still had Buck's knife, but I wouldn't feel comfortable using it on such young creatures… besides, I'd be dead if I did, since their mom was there too.

As soon as I hit the ground I started running, just barely avoiding the jaws of the hungry dinosaur babies. I set off to run into the woods again and I could hear how the whole dinosaur family followed behind me.

Luckily the dinosaur mom was slowed down by her weight, so it was mainly her kids I was fleeing from, since they were faster and more agile than her.

I jumped over a log and crossed a little creek that ran through the forest. Behind me I could her how the young dinosaurs also jumped over the log and stomped over the creek, while their mother simply crashed the log with her massive foot.

Suddenly I saw a vine hanging from a tree up in the front. It could save me! I put on as much speed as my raccoon legs could muster and made a run for it. I grabbed the vine and in a dash I started climbing upwards. I took the knife into my mouth when I started climbing and it had a weird taste to it. Either this was how dinosaur teeth tasted, or maybe it was how Buck tasted, since he occasionally had it in his mouth in a similar fashion. I can't say that I liked the taste and the last thought actually made quite a weird and disturbing visual in my head, which I grimaced at and quickly shook off.

As soon as I climbed onto the wooden branch and was out of sight, I could hear the dinosaur babies beneath me as they tried to figure out where I was. Luckily their anatomy didn't allow them to follow, but I knew I would have to go higher in order to avoid their humongous beast of a mom.

Raccoons are luckily quite good at climbing, so it was not too much of a problem to get out of the dinosaurs' reach. I could hear them as they wandered away, obviously realizing that I wasn't worth the effort. I knew I was safe, but I suddenly just felt like climbing all the way up.

When I broke through the thick cover of leaves, I 'wow-ed' in awe at what met me. From the top of the tree, I could see most of the dinosaur world, even though I knew that it was much bigger than what I could see right now. The layer of ice above the jungle seemed to be higher than usual, but maybe that was just because of how far away I was from where I entered the dinosaur world. It was actually kind of hard to see it, due to the fact that the sky and grey clouds were visible through the ice so far above me.

I turned my head to look around me and saw a big valley a little away from me. I might have to cross it, which I wouldn't like, since I'd be out in the open where carnivores could easily see me. But I wouldn't be more than just a snack, so maybe they wouldn't eat me, even if they had the chance. Besides, I had to go find Buck, so I might have to cross the field whether I liked it or not. But it would probably be best to wait till night fall

* * *

><p>When night came, I started climbing down from the tree. The jungle was silent, just like in the daytime, but now it felt good, since it made me feel like I was completely alone, which felt nice and all. I didn't want to get attacked or anything by anyone, so the sooner I crossed the valley, the better.<p>

I came out from the forest's thicket to the valley and carefully looked around, just to be sure that no one or nothing was awake at this hour. I had used most of the day sleeping in a little nest of leaves and branches I had made to shield myself from anything else within the forest.

When I was sure that the coast was clear, I made a run for it. I sprinted across the field and tried my best to run without making too much noise. As I kept running, I sudden grew afraid of the thought that someone or something had seen me. Actually it felt like some eyes were watching me…

I kept running at high speed, but eventually I grew tired of it. Soon I was rather crawling instead of running, while I tried to regain my breath.

When I could breathe properly again, I got back on my feet, and then I just realized how big this open field was. It would take a long time to get to the other forest. When I looked back to where I had come from, I actually started fearing that I might be going _away_ from Buck. I didn't know where he was, so I didn't even know if I was going in the right direction.

I took a deep breath and sighed deeply. I had survived this far without Buck, but he was my friend and he knew just about everything about everything down here, so at some points I _did_ need him. But that depended on whether or not I would ever find him.

I realized that I had been standing there way too long and quickly started walking across the field. I walked at a slower phase, so now I wouldn't get spontaneously exhausted.

Soon I heard rapid footsteps behind me. I turned quickly around and saw a creature come towards me at high speed. It looked like one of those blue beasts that had chased me earlier today! Last time I ran from a pack of those, they almost got me! I turned around again and started running as fast as I could towards the forest. If I ran as fast as I could, it would only take a minute or so…

I dashed over bushes and branches on the way. I didn't know how the branches had gotten out here, but I didn't really care, since the dinosaur behind me was more of my concern. Suddenly I looked backwards and saw that the dinosaur was right behind me! I could see that this one was of the same kind that I had barely escaped from earlier, but it seemed to be larger than the others somehow. Its back was much taller for some reason, but I turned around and sped a little up.

Suddenly I heard the sound of vines getting sliding or grinding against each other. I could also hear a snapping sound from the vines. I turned around and expected to see that the dinosaur had been caught by some kind of monstrous plant of some sort. But when I turned around all I saw was the dinosaur bound up by vines that seemed to have appeared out of nowhere. When I stopped, walked a little closer and looked I noticed that it also seemed to have shrunk in size for some reason.

Suddenly I discovered that I wasn't alone with the tied up dinosaur; there was a black figure, standing a little away from the dinosaur. Maybe it was just me, but this creature's sharp fangs seemed to glow in the dark, or maybe it was just because of the moon light. It looked like another dinosaur!

"What's the matter?" Buck said after a few seconds of silence. "Don't you recognize an old friend?"

* * *

><p>Chapter 7 is served! I know it's served in small portions, but that's all I could give you this time... I actually wanted Buck to be gone a little longer, but he appeared now, so deal with it... XD<br>As always please leave a review! :D


	8. A Day Off  For Once

I don't remember the last time I had been this relieved. I mean, it's not every day you discover your dead friend isn't dead, right? Even though he was back, I could clearly see that life hadn't been easy on Buck.

To come up with an example, he had lost his eye patch, so now his other eye was fully visible. It wasn't a pretty sight though; practically not much more than a big wound instead of an eye. Buck also seemed to have a few scars on various places on his body, so I guessed he had been fighting something.

When I told him how worried I had been and how serious his scars looked, he just started laughing. And I, because I was glad to have him back, laughed as well.

"Ha-ha, yeah, Rudy isn't a nice playmate, you know," Buck told me when we were done laughing. "Unfortunately I didn't have my knife, but at least you watched over it."

I had given him the knife some time earlier and now he turned it in his hand, as if it was the answer to all questions in the world. The knife was in good condition, unlike its owner, but mentally, he seemed to be… well, Buck.

Suddenly I remembered the visions I had had earlier on. Were those really true, had I really been down here before? Maybe they were just early symptoms of loss of sanity. I mean, Buck was insane, so maybe he had gone through it too.

But I couldn't help but think that the thing about my parents had been true. If they had really sacrificed themselves instead of abandoning me, I couldn't angry at them for leaving me. But who wouldn't want to save his or her child? What they did was only natural!

"Something wrong, Raccoon?" Buck suddenly asked and took me out of my deep thoughts. I realized that I had been off for quite a while now, but should I really tell Buck about my visions? I knew we were friends and shouldn't keep any secrets from one another, but still; this sounded really weird.

"Buck…" I started. "What if I told you that I might have… well, been down here before?"

Buck thought about my question for a few seconds before saying: "I guess I'd be surprised… but how come I've never seen you before then?"

I was about to answer, but suddenly I remembered the visions more clearly, as if talking about it recalled my oldest memories. Maybe it was a good idea to talk about it.

"Well, it was many years ago…" I explained and felt better, maybe relieved, when I talked about it.

Buck seemed to think about this for a few seconds too. His brain – or what was left of it – seemed to work on overdrive at the moment, so that meant that he really listened to me, and did his best to understand and be serious for once, which I kind of liked, even though he seemed to be out of character.

"Why didn't you tell me before?" Buck asked after a while. This time it was my turn to become silent. Should I tell him that I might have seen my life flash before my eyes, or _was_ it really just early symptoms of insanity? Or was I becoming psychic? It sounded really unlikely, but it was the only explanation I could come up with, even though it didn't make too much sense.

Before I spoke, all the sound in the forest was the sound of the flames licking up and down on the wood we had used to make the fireplace. "I… I had a… vision of some sort."

"Hah, and they call me crazy," I heard Buck mutter, but when he realized that I had heard him, he quickly said: "Uh… I mean, can you tell me more about them?"

"Hmm… well, I just saw my past," I told him, feeling incredibly stupid. What the heck was I saying? "I used to think that my parents had abandoned me, but the visions showed that they had sacrificed their lives to save me…"

Now that I got to the sad part, I almost felt like crying, but I thought that it would be inappropriate to do in front of Buck. But obviously Buck had sensed how emotional I had gotten, and came over and sat beside me.

"It's okay if you don't want to talk about it," he said and patted my shoulder in a friendly way. His comfort made me feel better, but maybe he was right; maybe I shouldn't talk about this, since I wasn't all too comfortable with it. "Maybe we should just get some sleep."

"Yeah, guess so," I said. Buck then got up and walked over to the opposite side of the fireplace. I had missed his company and I just wanted to talk about what had happened all night, but there was still another day tomorrow. As Buck got comfortable on the other side, I lay down on my back and looked into the starry sky. It was another clear night, and I could see countless stars through the icy barrier high above our heads.

"Good night, Buck," I said and closed my eyes.

"Good night… Ringtail."

* * *

><p>The next morning went by rather normally – as normal as it can get around Buck, of course. Buck found a new eye patch and he also found some breakfast in the forest, which consisted of some kind of fruit, yet again. And I, who had no idea about what kind of fruit it was, ate it happily.<p>

We spent most of the morning walking and talking about what had happened after we got separated. It turned out that Buck had fought against Rudy, while I had somehow managed to sleep. It seemed pretty unlikely that I should be able to sleep with such a fight going on around me. I remember how the clearing I had woken up in had looked, and to sleep during such destruction would really take a lot.

"What happened to your eye patch?" I asked we walked by a lake. It was big and there were lots of dinosaurs gathered there; some swimming and relaxing in the lake, others drinking of it, and some even relaxed on the ground in front of the lake.

"Let's just say that Rudy was eager for a fight," Buck chuckled, even though I couldn't see the funny part in what Buck had just said. "While you were sleeping, I parked the boat and he ambushed us. Luckily I was able to get him away from you… even though I was unable to get _you_ up."

I just shrugged at his last comment, while Buck chuckled a little. Then he said: "No but seriously; you were impossible to wake up."

"Heh, yeah sorry," I said and rubbed the back of my head. I'm usually not that hard to wake up, but maybe it had been because of the intensity on the river. Like, who wouldn't just want to sleep and relax after such an experience? It's not nice to get chased around by giant monsters, you know. But it had become a regular thing since I came into the dinosaur world. But I had a neutral relationship to it; I hated to almost die, but at the same time, it was also kind of exciting to flee from monsters… when Buck was there at least.

"So, where should we head, Raccoon?" Buck asked me. I didn't know the dinosaur world as well as he did, so I had no idea at all, so I told him to decide it. Buck's eyes seemed to light up at this and soon he turned around and started walking. I followed closely behind, feeling a little worried about what Buck had in mind.

Whatever it was, I surely hoped it wouldn't get us killed or bring us in danger in any way; I would like to play it safe for once and be sure to survive. And when I say survive, I mean to surely survive, and not just one more last-second rescues.

"Where are we going?" I asked Buck as we made our way through the forest. We had come to a more dense part of the jungle, and the forest floor was almost impossible to see through all the vegetation. I was starting to get more and more worried to tell you the truth. I knew I should trust Buck by now, but you can never know when it comes to the crazy weasel… don't act like it's a lie.

As we made our way through the dense jungle, Buck told me a lot of stories that sounded like nonsense to me. Something about escaping digestion inside a dinosaur of some sort… really weird stuff that I don't really want to talk about, since it was also kind of nasty.

"It's right around here," Buck told me and pushed a few big leaves aside. The area that we came into was a rocky mountainside. As soon as we came out from the forest, I noticed the intense heat. When we came closer to the mountain side, I noticed a red and yellow liquid run past us, just like a river of some sort. It seemed to be a thicker substance than water, and the heat seemed to radiate from it.

"What is that?" I asked and pointed towards the red substance. Since it radiated heat, I was very hesitant about getting near it.

"Just lava," Buck chuckled to himself, as if I should have known what it was. "It's like fire… just melted rock."

I had never heard of melted rock, so I was very curious about this new substance. I picked up a stick on the ground and threw it into the lava. It had barely hit the surface before it was set on fire!

"Buck… We've been through a lot," I told my friend. "But I'm not getting near that stuff."

"Don't worry," Buck told me and waved with his hand to signal that it was nothing. "If you fall in… well, let's not get pessimistic, okay?"

It didn't really help. But suddenly Buck grabbed me by the arm and dragged me along. I only struggled a little bit, but then I realized that he wasn't heading for the lava. He actually went in a circle around the stream, which I was thankful for, and headed for the mountains.

"Where are we going then?" I asked Buck as he led me into the mountain area. It was similar to the Chasm of Death, but it was still seemingly different… but I couldn't quite figure out what it was. Maybe it was the rock sort that the mountains were made of… I don't really know anything about rocks, other than the fact that they're hard and uncomfortable to sleep on. Maybe it was just the air that didn't smell weird, but instead smelled burnt here. Whatever it was, it wasn't anything I could put my finger on, but I knew it was there.

"What is this place?" I asked Buck as I followed him into the mountains.

"Lava Falls," Buck replied.

"Why is it called that?" I asked. The lava-part was logical and clear enough, but why falls? Was there a waterfall around here? And if here was, was it an ordinary waterfall, or a boiling deathtrap? Speaking of deathtraps, what would Buck and I be doing in such a place like this?

Suddenly we came to an edge of some sort. There was a very long way down, and a clear view over everything. Wherever we were, it had a somewhat pleasant and relaxing aura over it… well, except of the lava stream.

"The fall itself is over there," Buck said and pointed towards the edge. I saw how the lava fell over the edge and walked over to look down.

The red, boiling liquid simply fell into a deep canyon and into a pool of lava. It made me kind of uncomfortable and I took a step backwards, away from the edge.

I then looked over at Buck in question. "What did you bring me here for?"

"I guess I owed you some relaxing after all the intensity," Buck said with a crooked smile and moved his hand around on top of his head, as if he was fixing his head fur or something. Then he added: "Oh, and also for your effort of looking for me."

I smiled a faint smile at my weasel-friend. I was glad that he understood and just wanted me to relax. It had also been so stressful to be alone in a strange world with giant monsters everywhere.

Buck then led me over to a random little area with trees and bushes a little away from the lava. Surprisingly it was lush green instead of ashy and burnt, which I would have expected.

In the middle of the little den there was a pool. It wasn't that big, but the water seemed to be boiling… or at least very hot.

"Now what?" I asked Buck confused. Whatever kind of relaxing he had planned, I couldn't seem to figure it out.

"Just jump in," Buck told me with a chuckle

"Say what!" It surprised me. Was he planning on boiling me and eating me? Had his insanity really reached that level?

"Of course," Buck told me, as if I was the one with no sanity. "Try it… it's nice!"

Very hesitatingly, I slowly dipped my right foot in the boiling pool. It was very hot at first and I flinched a little, but soon I realized something. "Hey it _is_ nice!"

Buck just chuckled a little and smiled as I slid all the way into the pool. Somehow I was able to take seat below the water's surface, so that the water covered me all the way up to my chest. I'm not usually a fan of getting my fur wet, but this was A-W-E-some!

Soon Buck slid into the water on the opposite side, so that he was facing me.

"Buck can you do me a favor?" I asked him and closed me eyes and leaned back in the water, allowing my body to slide into the water, so that only my head was above the surface. My foot hit Buck's foot under the water, but I was in a daze of peace.

"What is it, Ringtail?" he asked me.

"Don't… ever… take me away… from here," I begged him. I just wanted to stay here. Just fall… Just forget the world around me… I wanted… to sleep.

Before Buck could reply to my request, I closed my eyes and soon I was asleep.

* * *

><p>Hi guys... sorry about the late update, but KFPNM got me obsessed, so I wasn't able to let go untill now... but here you go! Please leave a review if you like!<p> 


	9. Back on Track, I Guess

When I woke up I found myself on the ground. Unfortunately I wasn't in the hot pool anymore. I sighed and remembered the nice feeling of the warm water. Above me I saw various leaves, so I took it I was somewhere on the forest floor.

I sighed again and turned my head. I quickly withdrew my head when I saw some kind of weird creature very close to my head. It took a few seconds to realize what they really were; feet.

"What the…?" The feet were covered in brown fur and also kind of smelly, so it wasn't that hard to figure out that they must have belonged to Buck.

"Sorry about that," Buck said and withdrew his feet. I then sat up, supporting myself with my shoulders.

"Where are we?" I asked and looked around. As mentioned, we were in the forest. The vegetation above us had a few holes and the sunlight shone down through it, so it was obviously daytime. The thick vegetation around us formed walls that seemed to completely isolate us from the rest of the world.

"Don't know," Buck simply answered and waved it off, obviously not caring about our location.

"You don't know?" I asked, being back to my worrywart self again.

"Hah, maybe I _should_ have left you in that pool," Buck chuckled, obviously not caring about my question – at all.

"Maybe you should have," I muttered. I got to my feet and looked around. I had no idea about how long I had been sleeping, but I felt all refreshed and ready for anything that could possibly happen.

"Anyways, what do you want for breakfast?" Buck asked me, and then I noticed just how hungry I actually was. My stomach suddenly growled and I then told Buck that just about anything would do… as long as it was edible.

Soon Buck got to his feet. He then took his knife and slashed the vegetation in front of him a few times and soon the forest behind it was visible. It looked like most of the dinosaur world from what I knew. There wasn't really anything special about it.

"Come on. I know a good place to look for breakfast," Buck told me as we strolled down a forest path. The forest around us was pretty much silent, and there were no signs of life at all. It was actually pretty nice. On the surface I would usually feel lonely, but down here, it felt nice when there were no living beings too close… especially the carnivorous ones.

"So what do you have in mind?" I asked him as we continued.

"Hmm… what about some fruit?" Buck asked after thinking for a second.

"Sounds good to me," I replied with a little smile.

"We can go find a Killer-Vine…"

"No," I simply replied. Killer-Vine is the name that Buck had given to the plants with long vines that almost killed us some days ago. I still didn't want to get near that plant again. Well, sure its fruits were very tasty, but still… I didn't want to risk my life for one little fruit; each plant only had one fruit and getting that fruit was very hard.

"Uh… okay… then what about…?"

"What about a normal fruit that hangs on a tree that doesn't try to kill us?" I interrupted Buck. I'm not usually a person who interrupts people, but I wanted to get some breakfast and have a chance of surviving for once.

"Or that," Buck replied and led me into the thicket of the forest. Soon we were out of path, and I could barely see my feet between all the vegetation. It was actually just like standing in water. I just hoped that nothing would grab me by the feet from under the vegetation and eat me or something. But down in this world, you'd never know.

Soon enough we came to a clearing. It was pretty big, and seemingly full of flowers. There was also a pond in the middle of the clearing, and a few small dinosaurs were drinking water from it. They weren't much bigger than us, had brown and green scales and had something that looked liked beaks. They seemed to live in a big pack – around ten of fifteen animals. But the most important part was that they didn't seem to be carnivorous.

When we got closer, they seemed to turn more cautious and looked over at us with insecure faces, but as soon as they realized that we weren't up to eating them – let alone harming them – they turned back to their drinking. Some of them even seemed to eat some of the plants growing on the ground.

I looked around for anything edible that Buck would consider our breakfast, and my eyes fell on a tree a little away from the pond. Some sphere-shaped, orange fruits grew on the tree, and I had never seen such fruits before.

"Right this way, 'Coon," Buck told me and led me towards the tree with the orange fruits.

Soon Buck had climbed into the tree and thrown down around ten fruits. It looked like much, but maybe that was just me. I still wasn't used to eating more than just enough to survive, but maybe I just had to get used to it.

"So how do you eat these?" I asked Buck as I turned one of the orange fruits in my hands. It was fairly big, almost as big as my head, and it had a nice weight to it. The surface was like any other fruit I had tried to eat down here, but it was still a little harder feeling.

"Like this," Buck told me and suddenly used his knife to make a hole in the fruit. He then slid the blade along the fruit, revealing that it was covered in orange peel. The fruit-meat under the peel seemed to be orange too, but also kind of white, as if it was fur or something.

Buck then cut it in half and gave me the one half. Now that it was cut in half, it seemed to be more fruit-like, and juicy. I looked over at buck who took a bite of the fruit, then back at mine.

It seemed edible enough, since Buck was eating it, so I carefully brought it up to my mouth and impaled the fruit with my teeth. Just as I did so, a sour, yet very sweet juice steamed into my mouth. I was a little hesitant at first as I got used to the taste, but eventually drank the fruit juice. Soon I took a bite of the fruit and it tasted almost just like the juice.

"It's actually pretty good," I told Buck as we ate. I had never tasted these kinds of fruits before, but they were so good that I knew this wasn't the last time I would.

"I know," Buck chuckled as we ate. Soon we had finished our halves of the fruit, and soon Buck had peeled some more. This time we got a whole fruit each. These orange fruits were just about the best thing I had ever tasted, and I just wished that Buck had showed me them earlier.

* * *

><p>Later we were headed off to find Rudy… again. I had been very protesting at first, but Buck had just dragged me along until I finally agreed – don't ask. The main two reasons why I didn't want to find Rudy was because he was a giant killer-machine and we had already been close to dying. The second reason was that I wanted more of the orange fruits; they were good, even though I didn't know what to call them.<p>

"So now what?" I asked Buck as we continued down the forest. I was a little nervous about finding Rudy again, but I tried my best to keep my cool and look relaxed.

"I'm pretty sure Rudy should be somewhere around the Plates of Woe," Buck said in a tone that sounded like he was speculating something, or discussing with himself and tried to make up his mind.

"So we'll just go look there for now," Buck said and threw his knife into the air and caught it again. He seemed to be very determined and mad. And by mad I don't mean angry-mad; I mean like insane, which I guess is what Buck is.

I just rolled my eyes at my friend and followed him as he took the lead. Soon the forest parted and we came into some kind of lowland with no vegetation at all – almost. There seemed to be some small bushes here and there, but that was pretty much it.

"Do we have to cross this field?" I asked worried. If we did, we'd be visible to all predators and if one chased us, we'd have a hard time hiding; unless Buck could fly somehow… it wouldn't actually surprise me if he could.

"Of course, Ring Tail," Buck chuckled and headed for the bare field. I followed shortly and soon we had abandoned the safety of the dense jungle. Buck walked in a kind of careless way, while I looked around for danger with every step. There was no danger in sight but you could never be too careful if you'd ask me.

"Aren't you worried at all?" I asked Buck when I had reached him and walked beside him. "Like, what if we were jumped by some kind of dinosaur?"

"Have you already forgotten rule number one?" Buck asked me in a serious tone. Of course, who could forget it? Always_ listen to Buck!_ Hardly anyone I guess. But who would have an easy time following it? No one in the entire world could that – not even me. Buck was crazy, insane, wild, brave, and a daredevil. He was the complete opposite of me, but maybe that was why I stayed with him; because I was the sanity and he was… well, everything else. I know it doesn't make any sense, but it sounded so much better in my head.

"No," I told him with a sigh. "I'm just worried about you… actually I'm more worried about the both of us."

"Is that so?" Buck chuckled. Obviously he and his weird, twisted humor found it funny for whatever reason. "You shouldn't. I know pretty much everything about survival down here, so we'll be fine."

His words comforted me a little – just a little. The only thing that did leave me a little worried was the fact that this knowledge seemed to overwrite any kind of logic… at least in my book… Maybe it was best to just do as Buck told me… I guess.

"Now, where were we?" Buck muttered and looked around at the bare fields. I just stood behind him and looked backwards instead… you know, just to make sure that we weren't ambushed, since Buck seemed to forget that direction.

"Eh… I guess we were looking for Rudy, right?" I asked him, feeling a little uncertain. Why? Well, because, to be honest, I'd rather be starving for a week than look for that giant monster… probably.

"Aye, let's get going!" Buck said in a very upbeat voice, sounding very, very confident.

"But do you even know what direction to…?"

"I have absolutely no idea, mate," Buck said in a very careless tone. I was about to protest, but he just headed off to a random direction. I stood there and looked at the ground, grumbling to myself. It was one of those moments where I regret ever following Buck in the first place. I looked up again, but the angered expression disappeared from my face and was replaced by a terrifying one when I realized just how far ahead Buck was. Suddenly I heard a dinosaur growl in the distance – sounded like a predator. I wasted no time and dashed after Buck, not wanting to end up like dinner.

Buck was just walking around, talking to me – he hadn't even realized that I hadn't followed him all along! He was telling one of his weird stories, and getting into one of them in the middle was even more confusing! None the less I knew that I was safe now – at least _more safe._

* * *

><p>Aaaaaaaaaand we're back! Hi, welcome back! I just barely managed to finish this chapter in a few minutes - respect for hat... right? No, okay... Oh well, I hope you haven't forgotten about this story, since... well, it's beena while. ;) Anyways, I hope you'll like the new chapter. :)<p> 


	10. Traveling Montage

**A/N:** Alright, I know… First of all, it's been forever since I updated this story… secondly, I did say that I wouldn't update anymore… but how could I not with comments like these?

Awesomeeeee!  
>This is probably my favourite story of Buck!<br>Finally someone has made something different!  
>You know what i mean,a weasel female that fall into Dino-world,Buck help her,they fall in love...i don't hate these kind of stories,but...they are all the same!<br>**- HESTER374 on DeviantART**

Seriously, how could I not? Now, now, don't think I have overseen the rest of you. Everyone who's read, reviewed, favorited and commented on this story… it's because of YOU that I got myself together to do it… that and I promised to make more when someone asked me if I was going to. ^^;

Oh well, enjoy! :3 Also, this chapter will be a traveling montage, and since I used it when I wrote, try listening to the 'everything is awesome' song from the Lego movie. It actually fits it somewhat. X3 This 'montage' is a bit short, but... oh well. :3

P.S. it might sound like I'm trying to push a Buck-OC here… I'm not… not yet anyway (Just kidding… maybe another fic). I just wanted to make some parts sound like something… else was happening. xD

* * *

><p>"… Buck?"<p>

"Yes, Right-Tail?"

"I don't know if I'm ready…"

"Wha? Don't worry, it'll be fine. Just hold my hand, if you need to."

"What, no!"

"Fine, fine, I was just offering it. Oh well, you want me to go first?" I nodded. "Alright, let's… go… get… Buck wild!"

Buck ran towards the edge of the cliff. He jumped into the air and I watched him fall for a moment before following myself.

As I fell I watched the brown weasel land on the neck of the long-necked dinosaur, surfing all the way down to the back. I had to admit that the dinosaur didn't feel quite feel like one might expect; so warm and dry. One might think that they'd be cold and slimy, but quite the opposite was true.

"Buck!" I called as we got closer to the tail. I did have a bit of trouble with my balance though. "What do we do now?"

"Just follow me, raccoon!" Buck called happily. "Wahoo!"

Once Buck reached the tip of the dinosaur's tail, he jumped off. I was a bit surprised, but eventually he landed on another dinosaur, and even continued surfing on it.

When I jumped however, I just barely managed to land on it, since the darn thing turned its head! I did manage to grab onto the side of the dinosaur's head. But seemingly, and understandingly, it didn't like this and easily shook me off.

This was a big dinosaur, mind you, so as you might expect, there was a long way down! I didn't even think Buck had noticed, but eventually I ended up landing on a smaller, quite strange dinosaur.

It was bipedal and it made weird burping-noises. But when I landed on it, it started wailing and run wild. It didn't take long for it to shake me off though. And it only got worse from here; this time I landed on top of something very hard.

At first I thought I had hit the ground, but it turned out to be a dinosaur too. This one had a back, which was covered in hard plates and some bony knobs. It growled angrily and I noticed how there was a big, bony club at the end of its tail!

It started trying to shake me off, and I was certain this one wouldn't just be happy with that; I wouldn't be surprised if it attacked me.

However, as I struggled to hold on, suddenly I heard a very… peculiar noise. Suddenly Buck ran out in front of the dinosaur, screaming weird noises and flailing his arms above his head.

The dinosaur stopped moving and I took advantage of the situation and jumped off. As soon as I landed on the ground, Buck and I ran off (Buck continued his weird display all the while, startling all the dinosaurs that were in our way).

"Would you… stop that?" I asked as we ran.

"Why?" Buck asked, shortly stopping. "It's fun; you should try it!"

"I'd rather not," I muttered.

* * *

><p>I carefully climbed up the tree. I had seen one of the fruits that I had learned was safe to eat. I had no idea about where Buck was, but he had told me that he'd go get something to eat for the both of us.<p>

Not that I didn't trust in the crazy weasel's skill, but just to be sure I had decided to pluck this fruit.

Once I stood on the branch that the fruit hung above, I carefully walked towards it. When I was close enough, I stretched my arm, so that I could reach the delicious fruit.

"Run for it, mate!" Buck's sudden shout surprised me so much that I almost fell off the branch. I turned my head to see the weasel, running with a bunch of fruit in his arms, a bunch of relatively small dinosaurs chasing him.

"What'd you do now?!" I shouted after Buck.

"Nothing!" Buck told me, still running. "These greedy, little fellas just don't want to share – can you believe it?"

* * *

><p>Buck sniveled sadly. "I-… I know we've been through a lot of tough times… I-I know I promised to call. But…" He stopped, wiping a tear off his cheek. "We just can't be together like this anymore." Buck lifted his knife. "I'm sorry I have to do this, but…"<p>

"What are you doing?!" I asked, staring rather confused at Buck. Buck looked from the pineapple in his arms to me. He then looked back at the pineapple. I got truly confused when he suddenly planted a soft kiss on the pineapple before using his knife to slash it in half.

"What was that about?" I asked, still a bit confused as we were about to eat the pineapple.

"Long story," Buck replied with a chuckle. He took a bite out of the yellow fruit meat. "We were married, but… oh well."

Buck chuckled to himself, though I only found it to be mildly disturbing, if not just plain disturbing.

* * *

><p>I woke up in the middle of the night. I had felt something tickling my back. At first I didn't really care about it and just rolled onto my other side. However, it kept tickling me, whatever it was.<p>

My eyes jolted open when I suddenly remembered what Buck had told me about the giant insects of the dinosaur world. I got to my feet and stumbled backwards till I faced the wall of the cave we had decided to spend the night in.

"What's wrong, mate?" Buck asked, a grim expression on his face, which was only helped by the glow of the fireplace next to us. "Don't like creepy crawl-…"

Before he could finish, I (Somewhat softly) hit Buck's nose before lying down again. "Good night, Buck."

"But I was just joking," Buck said, but I didn't answer. He chuckled to himself "Oh well, sleep tight; don't let the creepy crawlies bite."


End file.
